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VoIP Articles > VoIP Answers the Call of People
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By Chris Landry There is a huge
population of Americans who have been calling for increased
competition when it comes to local telephone service. There are many
people who absolutely hate dealing with the ILEC (incumbent local
exchange carrier) due to expensive service, incorrect billing,
rude/unprofessional customer service, or a sub par quality of
service. As of April, 2008, the VoIP industry now boasts over 4
million American paying customers for services that directly compete
with the ILECs. Vonage Voice over
IP boasts the most customers. By my calculations they will
have surpassed the 3,000,000 customer customer sign-ups by December 2008. The next
closest competitor is Cablevision (a Cable TV/Internet provider).
They have had approximately 1,000,000 subscribers and are adding
roughly 6500 customers per week. The third largest Voice over
IP provider is Time Warner (also a Cable TV/Internet
provider). Time Warner VoIP currently has 700,000 VoIP
subscribers on their network. No other provider has over
500,000 Voice over IP customers. The fourth largest player,
Packet8 (8x8) is a little ways back with roughly 455,000 paying VoIP
customers. Many Cable providers
are jumping into the VoIP space as well as many traditional
telephone companies are embracing the emerging VoIP technology as a
viable option. In fact, in 2007, roughly 65 percent of all
traditional long distance telephone calls are at some point routed
over a VoIP network to reduce costs. AT&T and Verizon have
already entered the VoIP space, but do not have very good results to
date. AT&T spent millions on advertising their AT&T
CallVantage but at the end of 2004 they have managed to only garner
53,000 customers. In fact, AT&T has backed off of its goal
to acquire 1 million customers by the end of 2005. SBC (in the
process of buying AT&T for $16 billion) has expressed interest
in expanding the customer base of CallVantage as soon as the
purchase was completed, but obviously, that did not happen. There are
many, smaller independent Voice over IP providers that are
making headway. Only time will tell to see who survives and
who goes belly-up. In the VoIP industry, there is very little
overhead once the network is set up. The VoIP industry has
incorporated a pre-payment billing system that also cuts down on the
VoIP company’s bad debt or deadbeat customers. This will benefit the
end users (customers) in the long run. Voice over IP
Customers will enjoy lower prices, better service, real time access
to their account, and the satisfaction of never having to deal with
the ILECs again. All of the VoIP
providers mentioned above offer an unlimited VoIP calling plan that
costs at least $22 per month. VoIPChoices.com has done
extensive research and recommends at least 3 smaller Voice over IP
providers that offer an unlimited VoIP plan for less than $25 per
month. Each provider is compared side-by-side by features as
well as the price. Click here
to view online VoIP comparisons. Generally, an
informed consumer ends up a happy consumer.
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